Improvement in processes for preserving wood



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

THOMAS JONES, OF HAREWOOD HOUSE, OALSTOOK, ENGLAND.

lMPROVEMENT IN PROCESSES FOR PRESERVING WOOD.

' Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 155,191, dated September 22, 1874; application filed March 30, 1874.

To all whom it may concern:

Wood House, Oalstoek, in the county of Comwall, England, have invented an Improved Process for Preventing Dry-Rot and Decay in Timber for building and other purposes, and for rendering the same uninflammable, of which the following is a specification:

This invention relates to that class of processes employed in preserving timber from dryrot and decay, and rendering it uninflammable; and it consists in impregnating the timher with a hot or cold solution of tungstate of soda.

In carrying out my invention, make a solution of the common tungstate of soda of commerce, in hot or Goldwater, in the proportion of from two and one-half to three pounds of the salt to every gallon of water, so that the solution may have a specific gravity of from 1.15 to 1.20. The timber is then to be impregn ated with this solution either by soaking,

-(as in kyanizing,) in which case the timber should be left in the solution until sufficient has been absorbed; or by pressure, in which case the timber should beputinto exhaustingtubes, as in the creosote process.

It is best to force the solution while hot through the timber; but this is not a necessary condition.

When the timber is dry it will be found exceedingly hard, and it will not burn even if saturated in paraffine.

The timber may be painted or polished, like wood not thus treated, if thought desirable.

The fibers and intercellular spaces in the timber, and any minute granules contained therein, will be found coated with the mineral,

which is exceedingly hard, and contains neither Water, nitrogen, norphosphates. The sporules and mycellium of the funguses (such as the polyporus destructor, mam-Mus 'vastator, and merult'us lacrymcms, into whose chemical constitution there enters a very large proportion'of water, nitrogen, and certain phosphates) which produce dry-rot, thus become incased in a hard mineral containing no single element fit for their nourishment; their development, therefore, becomes impossible.

The timber, in addition to being made almost absolutely uninflammable, is also so exceeding hard that White and red pine become, both in appearance and hardness, like teak and British oak, respectively, and would be found cheap and valuable substitutes for these more expensive kinds of timber.

I claim as my invention- The process for preventing dry-rot in timber, and rendering the same uninflammable, by impregnating it with a solution of tungstate of soda, wherein an important point is the not using therewith substances such as phosphates or sulphates, which destroy or neutralize its effects, substantially as described.

THEormLUs HosKIN, THOMA SWOLFERSTAN. 

